After the Bash at the Beach PPV, the next few Nitro’s aired in Orlando, which was not too far from the 96 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Hogan was not on the Nitro following Bash at the Beach, but throughout the episode various wrestling personalities gave their reactions to Hogan turning bad. (The following week NFL star Kevin Green would put his two cents in) It was here that Macho Man referred to Hulk as Hollywood Hogan, the first time that phrase was used. The Outsiders did appear that night. Nash explained that Hogan was on set doing a movie. In this outdoor arena there were three large letters on set which spelled out WCW.

The following week the Outsiders posted the letters NWO in what looked like home made banners over the WCW letters. The night ended with a Lex Luger/Bubba match which the Outsiders broke up. At this point Hogan made his first appearance in which he was dressed in black (however the black and white NWO shirt would appear later). He cut a promo on how Hogan is bigger than wrestling, the fans can stick it for booing him, Macho Man blamed him for his divorce, and without Hogan, neither the fans or the next generation of wrestlers would be here. He then teases who else will join NWO, and challenges the Giant for a match at the Hog Wild PPV, proclaiming he’ll win the world title and make it the NWO belt.

In the next few weeks the Outsiders do more reality based angles. On 7/22, the Outsiders go in the control truck and mess with the camera etc. Security throws them out. The following week, 7/29, was their infamous backstage attack. During a match, Jimmy Hart runs out to the ring and yells for help. The camera goes backstage and the Outsiders are beating up people with baseball bats. Rey Mysterio Jr, leaps onto Kevin Nash, who lawn darts him, throwing him head first into a trailer. They take off in a limo, and in following segments the paramedics are seen tending to the wrestlers. The paramedics take Rey’s mask off, and Rey covers his face with his hands. Announcer Tony Schiavone notes that in Mexican wrestling they never take their mask off. Hogan is not seen during this segment, but Rey is heard saying there were four attackers, leading to a mystery of who the fourth man would be. These segments were filled with people yelling in pain, and others shouting about how they (NWO) can’t come in here and do this. It had a real life feel to it that most wrestling fans hadn’t seen. Bischoff claims that the Orlando police were called by people who thought this was really happening. I do believe what Bischoff says, but if anyone out their reading this can confirm this I’d appreciate it.

Also of note in that particular episode, the WCW sponsored race car, #29 driven by Greg Sacks, is acknowledged. That previous Saturday #29 won the 500K Busch Grand National Series event in Talladega Alabama.

On August 5th the first NWO video promo aired. Craig Leathers, a wrestling director and producer who worked with Bischoff, designed the NWO logo that would appear in the video, and later on the wildly successful T-Shirts. Nash recalls “It looked like something a bunch of guerrillas would just throw together.” (1) In the segment it was said to be paid for by the NWO. Nash had the understanding that story line wise they weren’t working for WCW. In the story line if the NWO wouldn’t appear on a taped segment, they would get edited out. Hence it the NWO video package was presented like a commercial paid for by the NWO. The WCW company didn’t fully understand this concept. For example early on WCW made a new set of T-shirts, there was a shirt for Hogan, Flair, Sting, and the Outsiders. They were all black and white shirts with matching outfits. Nash insisted these Outsider shirts couldn’t be sold by WCW because in the story line they don’t work for WCW. However, 10,000 shirts were already made, so Nash had vans set up in the back of arenas at WCW events with hot girls on bullhorns selling them bootleg style. (2)

The Hog Wild Pay Per View was on 8/10 at the Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis SD. (In later years it was changed to Road Wild because of a possible trademark issue with Harley Davidson). It was actually on a Saturday, as opposed to Sunday when most PPV’S were. The next day was Hogan’s birthday, which was noted in the broadcast. The PPV opened with this statement in text, “Due to the previous intentions conveyed by the NWO‭ (‬New World Order‭)‬,‭ ‬WCW would like to emphasize that ‬all views & ‬opinions expressed by the NWO, do not reflect those of World Championshiop Wrestling,‭ ‬Inc.‭ ‬a Turner Company.”

During the main event, announcer Larry Zybysko called Giant the Eight Wonder of the world, something Andre the Giant was reffered to as. ‭ ‬Bobby Heenan, also in the announce booth, said he managed Andre in front of 93,000 against Hogan, this was referencing Wrestlemania III, considered one of the all time great wrestling events. Hogan won the belt at Road Wild, and after the match Hogan spray painted in black the letters NWO onto the WCW Championship belt. Hogan’s belt was then reffered to as the NWO title. In the context of this story line, the NWO now ruled the wrestling world.

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I write as a hobby, and am self publishing comic books, prose, and poetry which are available on my Hard Coal Studios website. My works include Classic Horror Comics, Frankenstein: The Illuminatus Complex, and a poetry collection entitled Almost Normal.